St Andrew Undershaft is a Church of England church located at St Mary Axe, in Aldgate ward of the City of London, near the Lloyd's Building. It is a rare example of a City church that has managed to escape both the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the Second World War bombing during the London Blitz of 1940-1941. .

History The first church on the site was built in medieval times, being recorded in 1147. It was rebuilt in the fourteenth century and again in 1532 , when the present church building was constructed. It is in the Perpendicular style with its entrance located at the base of its off-centre tower. The interior is divided into six bays, with a many of the original fittings that have fortunately survived Victorian renovation. Formerly, the church had one of London's few surviving large stained-glass windows, installed in the 17th century, but this was destroyed in an IRA bomb-attack in 1992. The church's curious name derives from the shaft of the maypole that was traditionally set up each year opposite the church. The custom continued each spring until 1517, when student riots put an end to it, but the maypole itself survived until 1547 when a Puritan mob seized it and destroyed it as a "pagan idol". The church is currently administered from St Helen's Bishopsgate in Lime Street ward. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on January 4, 1950.

Notable people associated with the church

John Stow, author of the Survey of London: buried in 1605. The pen held in the hand of his alabaster monument is renewed annually by the Lord Mayor of London.

Hugh Hamersley, Lord Mayor of London in 1627, whose memorial is in the church.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497”“1543) was a parishioner of the church.